Transmedia Tuesday: Viral Summer Movie Tie-Ins

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Big summer movies mean big viral campaigns. And nowadays these can be just as good as (and sometimes better than) the movies themselves. We’ve gathered together a handful of the more promising examples to help fill your summer days. By the way, you’ll notice a theme here: all of the viral campaigns below are based on the corporate website of an in-world company. It’s a formula that works, and while it isn’t going to earn any marks for creativity, it does help with one of the viral campaign’s chief duties, making the story world seem more real.

Welcome to Rekall from Total Recall
Remember that Total Recall trailer we posted back in April? Well, in the last 8 seconds of it there is the regular movie info along with the URL for the movie’s website, but one letter of the address flickers between a “c” and a “k.” Go to welcometorecall.com and you find the movie website. Go to welcometorekall.com, though, and you find the corporate website of the memory-implanting company, Rekall from the film. Here you will get an opportunity to enter your phone number and wait to hear back from a Rekall representative. Fair warning though: so far no one who has entered their number has gotten a call back (as far as we know), but the smart money says that around Comic-Con time, this campaign will kick off.

Oscorp Industries site from The Amazing Spiderman
You get to help Oscorp Industries’ Animal Dynamic Lab do some chemical, molecular, and genetic experiments—that can only end well! Complete the mini-games successfully and you’ll be rewarded with bonus material related to the film. This is a slick site that you can actually get some decent puzzle gaming out of. Kudos to any Masterminds out there who are able to solve all the puzzles. This site has continued to unbox new content as the release on The Amazing Spiderman draws closer, so it’s entirely possible there’s even more to come.

Umbrella Corporation site from Resident Evil: Retribution
If you thought helping Oscorp felt dirty, you’ll want to stay far away from Umbrella! Right now this is only good for a minute or so of Umbrella corporate video (with a couple very minor—and predictable—surprises), but since the film doesn’t come out until September, there’s good reason to hope that in the weeks ahead this space will have more treats to offer.

Weyland Industries site from Prometheus
Someone in Ridley Scott’s PR team knows how to do viral right. This campaign is based on strong, character-strong videos from the story world featuring the actors from the film. They are well acted and expertly produced to give a real atmosphere to the story being told that is only hinted at in the trailers. You could easily lose an afternoon on this site and the best part is that there are still (apparently) sections yet to be opened. This campaign gets the Transmedia Tuesday seal of approval; if you only have time to check out one of these campaigns, make this the one.